Plans in to transform Dry Bar into boutique hotel

Plans have been submitted to transform the former home of Manchester’s iconic Dry Bar into a 101-bedroom boutique hotel.Treasure Choice Enterprise has lodged a full planning application with Manchester City Council to redevelop 28-30 Oldham Street in the heart of the Northern Quarter. Dry Bar, which formerly occupied the basement and ground floor of the property, was famously owned by Factory Records and formed an influential part of Manchester’s leisure scene since opening at the height of the Madchester movement in 1989. The three upper floors are also vacant.Under the HLM Architects-designed scheme, the applicant is planning to reconfigure the ground and basement floors and is currently in the process of acquiring an occupier for this space, according to an accompanying planning statement by GL Hearn. An accompanying CGI indicates that a new bar could take the place of Dry Bar.It also wants to use the existing roof space to create a fifth floor and introduce a three-storey rooftop extension. A total of 101 bedrooms would be built across the upper floors.Approximately 70 staff are likely to be employed during the construction phase, with 25 staff employed when the hotel is in operation.In September 2017, a consortium headed by Singapore-based hospitality and property developer Heeton Holdings confirmed that it had acquired Dry Bar’s building. The consortium revealed that it planned to create a new LUMA boutique hotel on the site.Manchester City Council has not yet set a date to consider the application.